When you enter a department, you have to engage the social environment of the staff. Find the researchers, volunteer to do some tasks for them. Join some projec

When you enter a department, you have to engage the social environment of the staff. Find the researchers, volunteer to do some tasks for them. Join some projects. Don't take classes from profs that aren't emotionally engaged with students. And for goodness sake, get to know them. If this isn't successful, you need to find a college where you can feel at home. Do you know who is doing research? Do you know who is getting funding? If you don't, you aren't doing your job as a student. You also have to take a serious look at your fellow students and see what they are doing. Ask yourself if you would enjoy teaching them. Are they interesting and engaging? Do they even talk about computer science? Here's a therapy suggestion. Offer your services to researchers in the sciences and you will find a practical outlet for your frustration. The budget for programming is the first thing to be eliminated from a research project and the postgrads, having taken a single course in C devote a ridiculous amount of time to programming. You, of the other hand can knock out a program using Python and negotiate payment of some sort.